Fillable Form requiring multiple users to fill and sign

[Cathie M.]

Hi - hoping someone can assist.

I've created a fillable form which is an employee reward nomination form. It needs to be filled and signed by multiple people across the business before it is completed. For example -

1. Employee's direct manager initiates form, filling out and signing 1st section.

2. They then send to department manager to approve, fill and sign.

3. From there it is sent to HR team to finalise, fill remaining details, sign and save.

The form I've created works but once the first person fills and signs, it then saves as a basic PDF and isn't able to be filled and signed by the next person.

For further context: the aim is to store the nomination form on a shared drive for employees to use regularly. So they pick it up and start editing whenever suits for them.

Is this possible? Help!

[BarlaeDC]

Hi,

This should be possible are you user Acrobat fo create the form? if so you need to make sure the settings are such that you are only saving the document ( not flattening or marking as read only all the fields), if you are able to share a sample (or the form) we can help further.

[Cathie M.]

Hi BarlaeDC,

Thanks for your reply. I am using Adobe Acrobat Pro to create the form. Unsure of what settings you're referring to to save the document though - can you explain further?

I'm also attaching a sample page of the form -you can see there's multiple sign off sections to be filled out, all by different users at different times. This is what I'm hoping to achieve - a work flow from the first user through to the last, using the same saved document and NOT using Fill and Sign.

Any further help would be greatly appreciated! 

[Lynda2530599655xz]

I am having the same issues.  I have a fillable PDF document which the 1st signatory completes and signs and then forwards onto the 2nd signatory to complete and sign their section.  How do we do this as once the 1st signatory has completed their part, the 2nd signatory is unable to fill in and sign their section.  Does one have to make 2 separate documents?  This is not ideal as one preferably wants 1 document which flows from one secti

on to the next.

Would really appreciate some guidance in this regard.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Make sure your signatures are not locking the entire form but just the fields that the person signing filled out. For example, signatory 1 would only lock fields they filled out, signatory 2 would lock fields they filled out, and so on.

[Holly300177122fdc]

Has this ever been answered? I have a time off request form with the same issue. Once employee completes the request, the manager cannot complete the fields to approve or deny and then sign the form.

[Lynda2530599655xz]

I have not had a response as yet.

Kindest regards

LYNDA FREESE | Risk and Compliance Manager
[personal contact information removed]
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[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

I've done this before by making sure Sig1 locked only the necessary fields. 

I also hid the other signature fields and the email buttons.

The act of focusing on Sig1 would show Sig2 and the appropriate email button. 

Then the second person signed it, it would show Sig3 and the next email button.

And so on. This was to prevent people signing it out of order. 

PS: I did not see any actual signature fields on your form. 

[Cathie M.]

Thanks David, the form lives on a shared drive so there isn't an 'owner' per say who can hide and only show appropriate fields.

Each user needs to fill out fields more than just add a signature as well.

I'm hoping for any employee to be able to pick up the form, initiate filling it out, then personally email it through to their relevant manager who would then fill out their section, and so on and so on.

Am I just hoping for the impossible?

[Megan23751221ck7g]

I'd love to know this too Cathie... I am dealing with the same type of issue with a form that different departments need to fill out (no signature). I need the fields to remain fillable after one department does their part so the next department can do theirs.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

It's just a matter of having an action that locks or unlocks the appropriate fields.

[Denise22734789i93x]

Is there such an action and if so where would that be? 

[defaultv661rfsg8mrt]

Hello all, I have the same issue.  If I need to search on how to do this, what will be the key words to search.  Thank you for all the info, but I'm still stuck.  Regards

[helenbeee]

At the risk of sounding rude but isn't intended your answer doesn't show a solution Adobe promotes acrobat as a corporate/business/organisation tool for shared documents yet clearly this is an issue that requires more than an off the cuff reply that it's doable without actually elaborating on how to actually do it or at least referring to somewhere in the support documentation detailing how this is possible. I understand that you are a community expert but it's not helping if it appears like you have it covered when you don't perhaps you can transfer this request onto another community expert that can give proper useable answers to this problem which I and probably hundreds of others face because their workplace forces them to produce documents with functions that Adobe promoted as easy when in actual fact are difficult. 

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

A company would have to invest in a server-based system, such as AEM, that could run into the thousands of dollars to do it automatically. I gathered from the OP that the intent was to do it simply in Acrobat Pro. 

I think if you spent as much time practicing with Acrobat as you do crafting such a well-written missive, you would not have any trouble creating a form. However, I created a simple form to demonstrate the process for you. (I followed my original instructions to create it.)

[Denise22734789i93x]

The issue is not the signatures, it is the fillable fields being available for the first signer and the second signer in my case. 

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Two optons I can think of without more details...

1. Don't lock the fields you want the second signer to be able to edit.

2. Have near-identical fields for each signer: e.g., TotalAmount_S1 and TotalAmount_S1. 

[Pauline34757300avfo]

I'm having the same issue. Has anyone used this and it works?

[Lynda2530599655xz]

I am having the same issues.  I have a fillable PDF document which the 1st signatory completes and signs and then forwards onto the 2nd signatory to complete and sign their section.  How do we do this as once the 1st signatory has completed their part, the 2nd signatory is unable to fill in and sign their section.  Does one have to make 2 separate documents?  This is not ideal as one preferably wants 1 document which flows from one secti

on to the next.

Would really appreciate some guidance in this regard.

[Pauline34757300avfo]

Hi there, 

I had a similar issue. It was an incident report form and had to have multiple people fill out. I ended up doing a workaround; Instead of signatures (which locked it), I had my users print their name and check a box saying that the information was true and complete. It worked and now I can have multiple people fill it out.

[Vincenza31456208f21q]

I do this all the time. When making it fillable, at the start of the form it asks if you require signatures. Leave it unchecked. Then add signature fields manually. This allows the first person to sign and save. Then a second person can open the saved file and fill in their fields and sign.

It won't have an audit trail though, so if you DO need that - then its not possible. If you're using digital signatures, an audit trail should not be necessary.

Hope this helps.

[CJB_1977]

I don't think any of us are using the official "Digital Signature," just the Fill and Sign signature. They are two very different things. The Digital Signature is higher security digital certificate. The Fill and Sign signature is just like a stamp that can be used by anyone without any setup. The issue is that the Fill and Sign essentially flatens the document once one signature is added and the file is saved. The next person can't apply their signature after that. I'm looking for a way to add that second signature.